Jeffrey Morgenthaler

Latest Drink Recipe

Here’s a fun little game you can play. Go ask someone – preferably someone not wearing arm garters or quoting Jerry Thomas – and ask them what’s in a Hot Toddy. The more people you try this game with, the better, because you’re going to get a lot of varied answers. But I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that you’re gonna hear a few of the following ingredients: Lemon… ginger… honey… cinnamon sticks… cloves… cayenne pepper.

The funny thing is that if you look at the earliest Hot Toddy recipe as it appears in Jerry Thomas’ 1862 Bar-Tender’s Guide, it contains none of these things. Here’s the recipe:

1 tea-spoonful of fine white sugar
1 wine-glass of brandy

Dissolve the sugar in a little boiling water, add the brandy, and pour boiling water into the glass until it is two-thirds full Grate a little nutmeg on top.

Water, sugar, brandy, nutmeg. Not even a lousy lemon peel. If you can’t think of anything less interesting or appetizing to drink, take a look at the recipe for the Hot Gin Toddy sometime. Anyway, as I was trying to standardize our Hot Toddy recipe for the bar a few years ago, I spent a lot of time thinking about how to stay true to the historical recipes while still offering a drink I felt our guests would enjoy. In the end, I decided to tell Jerry Thomas to take a flying leap and came up with something much more reflective of the style of cocktail we serve.

So, sure. We came up with a nice recipe that uses ginger and lemon, big deal. But during recipe testing something consistently came up that I felt was a common problem with Hot Toddies offered in many bars these days: they’re never hot enough. So I devised a solution: enter the Bartender’s Bain-Marie.

The technique is simple: fill a shaker tin halfway with very hot water, and build the drink sans water in a second tin nestled in the bottom shaker. Stirring the ingredients for a minute will raise the temperature to the point where we’re no longer serving cold or room temperature ingredients mixed with hot water. The now-warm drink is added to a preheated glass and finished with piping hot water.

Easy to do, and a hell of a lot safer to do at home than heating alcohol on the stovetop (note: do not heat alcohol on your stovetop). Here’s the recipe I landed on for those who want it:

Hot Toddy

Stir bourbon, ginger syrup*, lemon juice and allspice or pimento liqueur in Bartender’s Bain-Marie until warmed through. Transfer to preheated mug and top with boiling water. Garnish with orange peel.

Ginger Syrup

I always refer to this as the “San Francisco Ginger Syrup” method, as I stole it from Jon Santer, who I believe learned it from Thad Vogler, who probably didn’t steal it from anyone because Thad is a genius. At any rate I’ve rarely heard of bartenders in other cities doing it this way and when I have, it’s because they’ve learned it from someone from San Francisco. It’s easy to make, and delicious to use.

Simply combine cleaned (no need to peel the ginger) and roughly-chopped ginger (each piece should be about the size of your pinkie-tip) in a blender with equal volumes of sugar and boiling water. For this I’ve used 8 ounces of chopped ginger, 8 ounces of sugar, and 8 ounces boiling water. Blend on high until mixture is smooth, and then fine-strain through a sieve.

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About Me

My name is Jeff Morgenthaler and I'm the bar manager at Clyde Common in Portland, Oregon.

I've been tending bar since 1996 and writing about it since 2004. I started tending bar while getting my degree in Interior Architecture, and slowly I came to the conclusion that bartending was what I really loved, and that I might as well drop everything and focus on being a professional bartender. Over the years I have strived, both behind the bar and with this website, to elevate the experience of having a drink from something mundane to something more culinary.

The writing I do here is intended as a work in progress. My recipes are like my opinions: they are constantly being revised and refined as I work them through my mind and my fingers. Comments and participation are encouraged, so please don't feel the need to tread lightly here.

As you know, December 5th will mark the anniversary of Repeal Day; it was on this date in 1933 that the 21st Amendment was ratified and Prohibition was terminated. And, Dewar’s Scotch – the first legal whisky to arrive in the U.S. – hit New York’s South Street Seaport docks the moment the law was put into action. Joseph Kennedy, Sr. (JFK’s father) happened to be the US agent for the brand.

Now, a lot of people have suggested that Joseph Kennedy was a bootlegger, which he may or may not have been. But what he really was, was the owner of a company named Somerset Importers. Somerset owned the exclusive rights to import Dewar’s Schotch and Gordon’s Gin, and right before Repeal, Somerset stocked up. Big time. Once Prohibition was over, they sold the premium liquors for a hefty profit, and Joe was a rich man.

Why not celebrate this significant day in American history with some vintage cocktails – The Dewar’s Old Fashioned; Dewar’s Highball; Ward Eight; and the Rob Roy. Try out the recipes, and enjoy at your favorite speakeasy.

Lesley

Now, I can’t vouch for the quality of the recipes she sent along, because I’m not intimately acquainted with the flavor of Dewar’s Scotch. This may have something to do with the fact that Dewar’s Scotch has never flown me to Scotland to tour their facility and then write several articles about the experience. They have also never sent me a box containing their entire product line to sample and review. So, until I’m more familiar with their products through one of these methods, I’ll just have to explore other liquors.

Next up, Dewar’s has taken things one step further for all of us and our very important cause. They’re taking out a full-color insert in the December 5th edition of The New York Times announcing their commitment to Repeal Day. Here’s a preview:

Wow! I’d love to stop and say thanks right now, but Dewar’s had to take it to the next level for us. Watch this video they put together.

Thanks for all of your support, Dewar’s! Now, can we get any other liquor companies on board?

Well, thanks to all of you, Repeal Day is quickly on its way to becoming a widely-celebrated day in this country. I appreciate all of your hard work spreading the word about this important day in American history.

I was wondering if you know anything about the myth (or not) that if you drink too much gin, you could go blind? Thanks!

Ashley

Hey Ashley

It’s – kinda – a myth. But not entirely.

Let’s start at the very beginning. There are basically two types of alcohol: ethanol and methanol (ethyl alcohol and methyl alcohol). Ethanol is what you’ll find in your bottle of Maker’s Mark, methanol is an industrial solvent. Ethanol is drinkable, methanol is not.

During Prohibition, liquor bootlegging was common, but government oversight into the production methods was not. Things can get pretty scary when you’ve got people making drugs in their bathtubs.

So, as with most unscrupulous drug production, the good stuff was often cut with the bad stuff. It’s cheaper to make. And what happens to you if you drink the bad stuff? Well, let’s Ask a Scientist:

Methyl alcohol is highly toxic. Ingestion, or exposition to vapors of even small quantities of methyl alcohol can cause blindness.

Here’s a great video showing how they make shitty low-grade alcohol in a giant factory. The methods may be suspect – making rum out of corn, for instance – but the general idea is the same in smaller batches. Watch the video and then try to forget about having seen tonight’s pork fed offal from the Monarch corn-gin distillery.

Well, the response to Repeal Day hasn’t been this good since the first Repeal Day. I’ve talked to bartenders, bloggers, mixologists, and ordinary drink-minded people all over the country who are getting excited about celebrating December Fifth with me.

Paul over at Drink This Blog is behind us all the way, and is spreading the word to bartenders in person and with his brand-new classic cocktail blog.

The folks behind Modern Drunkard Magazine love Repeal Day. They’re talking about it in their forums, they’ve linked to us, and they’re even working on a story for the next issue! If you’ve never visited Modern Drunkard, do yourself a favor and read up, it’s a brilliant tongue-in-cheek look at modern drinking culture.

The guys over at DC Drinks are my kind of guys. Not only do they write one of the best-written drink blogs on the ‘net, replete with brilliant cynicism and witty commentary, but they’re so behind Repeal Day that they’re making me look bad. They’re going to be celebrating the Fifth at Billy Martin’s Tavern in Washington, D.C., which opened its doors on December 5, 1933. Repeal Day O.G.!

The Art of Drink is the mothership of drink blogs. Darcy O’Neil has put together a site that collects the best of what’s out there and I’m so glad he’s decided to join me in celebrating Repeal Day. Hi, Darcy!

I wish I had a lot of time on my hands – like Michael from Days that End in ‘Y’ – because if I did, I’d certainly try to put together a site that was as comprehensive as his. He’s got one of the most frequently-updated sites out there, and he knows it. He even suggested to me that if he doesn’t do something for Repeal Day, we should all let him have it.

There you have it, folks. We’ve got almost 20 more days left until the big day, so get out there and exercise your First Amendment right to uh, talk about the, uh, Twenty-First Amendment. Something like that.

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